INVENIT ET FECIT

There are certain things that identify a genuine watch enthusiast. Some might think that a quick glance wristwards is all it takes to flag a member of this tribe, but that is too wide a filter to be useful. After all, lots of people buy watches, and even more people choose to wear them.

There is the ability to casually drop phrases such as “polished internal angles” or “manufacture base calibre with Dubois Dépraz module” into conversation, or the facile, usually superfluous scattering of reference numbers. But that is mere jargon – anyone can digest a glossary and appear watch-savvy (I know I did when I first started out). To identify a genuine watch enthusiast, you need access to the true shibboleths, the stuff that gets you admitted to the horological Holy of Holies, the signifiers that go deeper than knowledge and into the realms of belief.

I don’t say this lightly. Watchmaking has its own form of dogma, and its key article of faith dictates that in-house expertise reigns supreme. “In-house” has been thrown around with appalling profligacy recently, but let’s be clear: there’s “in-house” and then there’s “in-house”. Just because a company is able to do something on its own doesn’t mean it’s actually good at it. Logically speaking, you should only do something if you can do it better than anything else you can get out there. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Which brings us to F.P. Journe. The company motto is the Latin phrase (invented and made), referring to the in-house design, construction and production of all its watches. To ardent disciples of fine watchmaking, the name “F.P. Journe” is a clarion call to